Subreddit for all discussions about the Amazon Prime Fallout Series. Feel free to talk about your thoughts and what you want to see in Season 2 of Fallout TV Show
Spoilers for the finale
Over the course of the series, the Wasteland is shown as a brutal, unforgiving environment that nurtures a literal dog eat dog existence for life given that “sometimes, a fella’s got to eat a fella”. In contrast, Lucy’s upbringing in the vaults leads to a much different approach to life compared to those of the Waste. Once she steps out of Vault 33, her altruism and naïveté become a point of moral light in the dark depths of the Waste.
However, the Waste corrupts all.
Lucy holds true to her Vault values for as long as she can, but when she is captured by the Ghoul she is forced to drink irradiated water; Lucy literally takes in the corruption of the Waste to survive. After this moment, she fights back, ultimately losing her finger to the Ghoul in the process.
When Lucy gets a new finger, it is a random finger dug out of a drawer in the operating room of a general store, but a moment of altruism that she all but gave up on finding in the Waste; only to be followed up with a cruel reminder of her reality. From this point on, her pointer finger takes on a dark purple hue like a part of her, the unwavering belief in the good, has died.
The symbolism of Lucy’s finger as the corruption of the waste culminates in Lucy’s last shot. Given the choice to follow the Ghoul to learn the truth, Lucy picks up Maximus’ pistol and shoots her ghoul mother in the head, thus symbolically killing her belief in the Vault’s values. By having Lucy’s trigger finger be a replacement from the Waste, it is literally the Waste that enables and causes Lucy to finalize her fall.
Now, when Lucy shoots to kill, the finger that pulls the trigger will be a constant reminder to the environment that corrupted her moral compass and pushed her into the darkness.
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In my option Lucy won't give up her core values. The symbolic exchange of fingers with the Ghoul is that she will need to adapt to the harsh reality of the wasteland and he will get back some of his humanity.
I may end up looking like you, but I don't have to be like you.
They literally represent the Yin and the Yang
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But that's not what Ella herself said about Lucy in the finale: "By killing her mum in a mercy kill, she’s doing exactly what the Ghoul did to Roger [in episode four]. She’s learnt from him. She has turned into him. When she said, “I’ll never be you,” maybe that’s not true. And in that moment, when she shoots her mum, it means so many things. It means, ‘I’m coming with you.’ It means, ‘I’m gonna meet my makers.’ It means, ‘I fucking hate you, but I have turned into you, you were right.’ It means she’s letting go of her golden centre."
To further your point: Consider the mirroring with the Ghoul’s trigger finger, which ties in with him losing his values. He watches himself use that trigger finger the betray his values on the TV, and when he goes to mimic the motion, he finds his trigger finger is gone because Lucy bit it off. He’s having to reconsider his violent behavior because of her. It shows that neither of them can grow without learning from each other.
The symbolism of the show is really top-notch. Most any other show wouldn’t have baked its messaging in so thoroughly.
Tbh I think she shot her mom out of mercy
And it mirrors the ghoul sewing her finger onto his hand. His trigger finger is now a part of her. Just like how now Lucy has to carry some of the darkness, the decay of the wasteland, so does the ghoul with the goodness, the purity that was Lucy. The writers might not have meant it to sound so poetic but the result is a really fascinating parallel.
It was scary how she wasnt forced to drink irradiated water at gunpoint or anything, the ghoul showed her that so called free-will disappears when your environment constrains your options and youre willing to survive.
You might enjoy this post someone made on fingers
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/s/yCMMNx8v3p
Are you sure the writers intended for all that symbolism or did they just pick a finger at random?
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So a man who can sew holes in his socks is feminine now? I have to call my father and tell him his mother lied to him and a man who can take care of his clothes and himself is a women nowdays. Yes you are projectingas far as 10 years ago sewing something ment you are not a total waste of space and can repair clothes
Sewing hasn’t been seen as a masculine skill, literally, ever. Sewing was seen as a necessary skill for a long time, but if you go back in time, one of the major issues that widows and divorcees had was not being able to sew, which created the seamstress industry. Today you more likely associate the term seamstress with prostitute than person who can sew, guess why?
Anyway, The Ghoul had a daughter, which is likely why he knew how to sew, which would be because he picked up feminine skills to get along with his daughter.
Yeah cause sewing up a fucking wound in the middle of a battle has always been seen as traditionally feminine. Get the fuck outta here with your bigotry.
"Today you more likely associate the term seamstress with prostitute than person who can sew, guess why?"
Congrats, mate. That's one of the most ignorant things I've ever read.
I bet I can guess what you got on your SATS.
SPOILERS
i didnt see it as symbolism but now that you mention, i can fucks with it. i feel like the finger and the cutting off of the head were just throwbacks to missions from fallout 3 and new vegas.
So, there’s this concept in literary criticism called ‘death of the author’, which basically says that after an author has written something, what it means or is saying is essentially up to the collective body of readers to interpret, literally put, at some point they couldn’t ask the author why he did something because he had died.
Essentially put, you have a very fine analysis, I just think most of those things were done because they’re story tropes.
Tropes exist because they have embedded meaning, though.
Always love the Death of the Author being brought in, especially to encourage discussion!
Just thought it was a nod to the Fallout 3 quest where you collect fingers/ears
I love this, with a caveat - she's not totally corrupted, totally fallen. She still has a belief in the good, it's just not total.
Or…
It’s just a funny gag.